20 IMCWP, Written Contribution of Brazilian CP

11/20/18 7:00 PM

The Brazilian Communist Party greets the KKE and all Communist and Workers' parties that participate in this XX Meeting

The evolution of capitalism and the world crisis have triggered the adoption of measures such as privatization and the withdrawal of workers' rights by bourgeois governments and also political setbacks as criminalization of popular movements and left-wing organizations, especially communists.

In Brazil, the victory of the far-right candidate Bolsonaro in the presidential elections against Haddad, of the Workers' Party (PT) meant a defeat for the left-wing forces. His campaign had been on the road since 2014, after the demonstrations of 2013, which revealed general dissatisfaction with the economic crisis and allegations of corruption against PT and favoured the actions of far-right groups that potentiated the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. Bolsonaro consolidated in the second round, since the candidate of the traditional right did not succeed in the first one.

Bolsonaro was captain of the army and has been a federal deputy for 29 years. His performance in Congress has been characterized by the defense of the entrepreneurial-military dictatorship (1964 to 1985) and attacks on feminist, LGBT, anti-rascist and indians' movements, civil and social rights. His support comes from agribusiness, large banks and industrial groups interested in withdrawing labor and social rights to better their capital accumulation.

The United States' support is evident, for their interest in attacking the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and others which oppose imperialism in Latin America, in strengthening alliances with the governments of Colombia, Chile and Argentina, and in Brazilian offshore oil. Bolsonaro was supported by military segments and conservative sectors dissatisfied with the advances obtained in civil and political rights after the fall of military rule. Conservatism also manifested itself against the measures in favour of the poorest undertaken, albeit timidly, by PT governments. Pentecostal churches had an intense participation and so were actions in digital media against Haddad, probably financed by big companies.

Bolsonaro's votes (38%) included the extreme right, sectors of the right, votes generated by dissatisfaction with poverty, unemployment, urban violence. There was much rejection against PT in middle class and popular sectors generated by scandals involving former ministers, Congresspeople and PT leaders, and by a strong campaign aimed at demonizing this party and ex-president Lula, imprisoned without evidence, generating an antipetista sentiment. Haddad's votes (31%) came from popular, left and democratic sectors, which included liberal segments. Abstention, null and white votes reached 31%.

We understand that PT is also responsible for the defeat of the left by virtue of the involvement of some of its leaders in corruption, for not having faced the big capital because of its class conciliation policy that confiscated and disarmed the workers, for having kept liberal economic policies and to have been distant to its social bases.

The new government has fascist elements in its composition, in State actions announced and in actions performed in the informal sphere. The ministry has an authoritarian profile with many military cadres. The first proposals point to ultraliberal reforms in the economy, withdrawal of workers' rights, attacks on democratic freedoms and institutions and criminalization of social movements. The permission to buy guns and other light weapons has been announced and there are bills that ban the communist parties being debated in Congress. Violent actions by fascist groups against social militants and organized movements have been intensifyed.

New ministers showed lack of background and have been contradicting themselves in their first speeches. Bolsonaro repeats Trump's braggart style, threatens to sever trade relations with China, to transfer the Brazilian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and exit the Paris agreement. These pronouncements have been generating criticism and opposition in various sectors of society and also bad repercussions in the international sphere, what has already forced his retreat in announced positions.

Many dissatisfactions with the new government may arise because of their anti-national and anti-popular policies. Some bourgeois-democratic institutions have matured in the past 30 years and will be able to withstand the attacks that will follow. Trump's recent defeat in parliamentary elections and Lopez Obrador's inauguration in Mexico tend to counterbalance the conservative offensive of Brazil and the US in the region.

The moment demands the strengthening of the democratic and antifascist resistance that had already formed in the streets around Haddad's candidacy, a broad front composed of parties and social movements aimed at organizing resistance to the new government and promoting initiatives in defense of human, civil and social rights, as well as at new achievements for the workers.

PCB will firmly resist. We understand it is necessary to maintain and strengthen the unity between class parties and social movements that point to the overcoming of capitalism, manifested, in the most recent conjuncture, by Boulos's candidacy (PSOL) and by demonstrations on the streets against political and social setbacks. We propose a large national meeting of the working class to consolidate the class and popular field to face the attacks of the bourgeoisie and to pave the revolutionary road to socialism.